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Guest Airprox

GMAX and Textures... again

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Guest Airprox

Hi all,I hope you can help, as this is driving me nuts... and as ever, can you keep any replys simple. :-) I've finally got some time to myself, so I thought I would continue with my "learning GMAX and build an Oil Platform" project. I've reached the stage of texturing, and am happy with assigning textures and Unwrap maps etc. the problem I have is that the textures show up in FS2002 offset from where I placed them. So I have a simple box, and I assign a texture to it and then I do the unwrap UVmap thingy, and accurately place the selected face over the exact part bof the texture I want show. I look in GMAX and it looks great (even if I do say so myself) save, export, fire up fS2002, and the object appears, but the texture is offset to 1 side. I was using 1.1, and the problem occured, have now upgraded to 1.2, same problem! I know there can be problems with projection angles and the like, but with this the textures are just offset! Oh, and the texture in the Gmax folder is the same as I am using in FS2002 (both 8bit .BMP for test purposes), in fact I copied one to the other.Any ideas? Or should I just uninstall GMAX and buy FSDS?CheersAlun

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Alun, your last line is somewhat telling. If having to face a challenge makes you want a different tool, then I suspect you'll be changing tools often. Personally, I don't give a hoot which tool you use, but I do know that you'll never enjoy scenery design if you view these kind of problems as a backbreaker. In fact, solving these kind of problems is part of the fun for me.I don't know why u are getting this problem, this doesnt happen to me. I suspect you have introduced some kind of offset unintentionally. I'm willing to look at your file, but only if you are planning to use the information. If you are serious about switching programs, It would be a waste of my time to look at it.Let me know if you want to send me your file and textures for review, bob.bernstein@attbi.comBob Bernstein

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Guest Airprox

Bob, Errm... Thank You, the tone of your post has left me felling completely stupid, and I'll make sure I don't ask for advice again.For your infomation, I am pretty dedicated to scenery design (altough I only have a couple of releases out there), and I've been working with GMAX for quite a few months. Maybe you should think about the possibility that not everyone is the same as you; I don't mind a few problems along the way, but my main joy is actually getting out there and flying around the scenery, if GMAX is going to hinder that, maybe I should be looking at a FS dedicated design tool, hence the last line of my post.I shall not be taking up your time with my problem, as I am not sure how I would prove to you my dedication...Alun

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Ah c'mon guys. Let's be civil. Bob has been a long time poster here and I am sure he did not mean to be uncivil Alun. I too am curious with your situation Alun. I have seen issues with cropping but have not had time to take a look. Does not sound like you mentioned cropping.You can send the project and textures to me at sjd20@qwest.net or contact me to chat MSN Messenger.... crashazNot many scenery guys so we have to stick together. Let's forgive ok? Thanks and post here anytime Alun.

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Guest Airprox

James, Bob, and anyone else who is reading this,Sorry Chaps. I should have checked my bad mood at the door. Been a bit touchy recently, stress of work and all that... anyway, sorry.James, thanks for the offer, I'll drop you a .zip file in the next couple of days (tomorrow hopefully, but work you know!), it's probably something really simple, but I'm just not seeing it.By the way, just had a look at you website, very nice! Shame theres no way to import moving ships into FS2002 (e.g. moving scenery that you can land on).Going to lie down in a darkened room,CheersAlun

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I didn't need to be so icey either...my apologies. Your questions are welcome.I'd be interested in what is wrong with your gmax work. During the day, I began to wonder if you messed with the uvmap gizmo at all?Bob Bernstein

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Guest GabrielR

.... But it is strange... If you are seeing the textures correctly applied in Gmax, but when you fireup Fs2002 they are out of place, that does not make me think about any internal gmax problem... Like messed up gizmos, or offset textures, that could be spotted inside gmax itself...have you checked in your texture folder that the textures have the right name and that they were properly converted??It happened to me that I was working with a BMP in gmax, but i was using a completely different DXT in the sim.Sorry if my suggestion is stupid... Maybe you have already checked for that.

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Alun and everyone else,Rest assured that you are NOT alone. I have had it happen in both versions also. When it happens, mine usually shift about a quarter inch to the right and places what was the right edge to the left edge as if someone did a 'carrige return in typing'. It messes up every applied surface that uses that texture file. The only way I have found to resolve the issue is to rename the base item and start over from scratch in the texture application. That alone leaves a bad taste in your mouth about GMAX and if it was not so powerful, I would have jumped ship also. Hope we get a resolution.Al

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Just a suggestion. In GMax you can set the resolution of the texture used there (display options somewhere :)). I can imagine that if you set this to low it might look OK in GMax, but there can be a small offset with the result in FS. Could this be the problem?Arno


Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[link:home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]Arno's FlightSim World for scenery design hints, tips and other tricks...

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If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done.

FSDeveloper.com | Former Microsoft FS MVP | Blog

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Guest Airprox

Thanks for all the advice Chaps!I've created a totally new object (a simple cube), and created a new simple texture saved as 8 bit .BMPs for simplicity, exported, and viola! same problem. I've tried creating the textures with different programs but same result. I'm just about to send a file off to James for him to have a look, so I'll have to see if he comes up with anything.Arno, I haven't tried your idea yet, thats next on my list.Cheers for the helpAlun

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Have you tried a different format(DXT1/3?) on the texture in FS?

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Alun, I'd be interested to try your object and try to replicate the problem...please send to the email above...a different set up may be what's needed here.Bob Bernstein

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Alun sent me his gmax file, and I've found the factor that makes this occur...within the zip he sent me included his textures, in two places, one as his "gmax" assignment place, and another for the "texture" file. In this case, they were the same, 8bit 512x512 pixel files, showing a file size of 258kb.I did duplicate the problem.I then created my own version of the test box, and made my own version of the texture, and mine worked fine with no offset.This fooled me for a bit, but eventually I noticed that my file was only 257kb in file size. I then copied my file over to be one of his files, so that now his texture in the gmax assignment dir was 257kb and in the texture dir, still 258kb.ASsigning his 257kb file made the texture fit correctly, even if the sim saw the 258kb file in the texture dir. BUT, if the files were reversed, with the 258kb file ASSIGNED in gmax, the offset occured, and this was true for BOTH when the texture file was 258kb AND when it was 257kb.I then created from scratch several new files, 8 bit palletted color, 512x512 pixel, and they constantly came up at 257kb. Alun uses paintshop pro, I don't have that. Perhaps there is something about psp that adds some bits of information to a file like this. I used Corel photopaint, and could not create a 258kb file size.Before and After images are attached. The box on the left is made with my file size of 257kb. The one on the right has 258kb assigned in the BEFORE and 257kb assigned in the AFTER. (the goal was a centered black box).Bob B

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Hiya Bob...I just tried a 512x512 256 color .bmp in PSP 6.2 and came up with 257 (263,222) . Something's odd here.jb

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Hi Bob.I think you've found Airprox's problem. It's the texture. I've created bitmaps with PSP 7, MS Paint... 263,222 bytesI resaved some of these textures with imagetool... 263,242 bytes( picked up 20 bytes somewhere ).So the original image contains extra ( header ? ) data of some type, that's not found in the textures you created. The question now, is the problem of NOT recognising the header size caused by Gmax, or it it caused by FS2002? It appears that FS2002 will recognise and compensate for slightly differing header sizes... so that would be a Gmax bug. But to be fair to Gmax, the original texture could not have been a standard 8-bit opaque 256 color bitmap... or it would have been fitted correctly in the sim, as you have shown.Dick

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